Braves lose five-run lead on their way to fifth-straight loss

Despite going ahead by five runs in this game, the Braves collapsed in the latter stages of the game and eventually lost 6-5 to the Marlins.

The game started off as nicely as it possibly could for the Braves, as Ozzie Albies hit the second pitch of the game off one of the electronic boards in the right field stands to immediately put the Braves ahead. Then, with one out and two men on, Lane Adams hit a 89-mph meatball from Dan Straily into Stanton Territory deep in the left field seats above The Clevelander. Adams’ moonshot made it 4-0 Braves, and Luiz Gohara had a comfortable lead to work with.

Albies got on base again in the second inning, and Kurt Suzuki was the one who brought Albies in with a run-scoring double to make it 5-0 Braves. Freddie Freeman walked immediately afterwards to keep the danger going, but Nick Markakis lined out to end the frame. Still, the Braves had a big lead and it seemed like Atlanta was on their way to breaking this losing streak.

For the next few innings, things went smoothly. Even though the Braves didn’t add on to their then-sizable lead, Luiz Gohara was still pitching well enough to keep Miami off the board. That changed in the sixth inning, which is when Miami finally broke through.

The sixth inning was a weird one in that Luiz Gohara struck out the side, but there were a couple of big hits in between the first strikeout and the last two. After Gohara sent Mike Aviles back to the dugout, Dee Gordon hit a single. Giancarlo Stanton followed that up with a double to center, and then Marcell Ozuna brought both runners home with a double of his own. However, Gohara picked up the next two outs via strikeout with two runners on to end the threat.

However, the Marlins were right back in a dangerous position by the time the next inning rolled around. The first three Marlins all reached base in the seventh inning, and after Gohara struck out Dee Gordon, Brian Snitker decided to bring in A.J. Minter in an attempt to clean up the mess. This began an unfortunate trend of the Braves bringing in multiple relievers who failed to retire the first batter they faced. The next four runners all reached base, which means that by the time the inning mercifully came to an end, the Marlins had turned what was once a 5-0 deficit into a 6-5 lead after the seventh inning.

The Braves did mount an attempt at a rally in the top of the ninth inning. Ozzie Albies, Kurt Suzuki, and Freddie Freeman all reached base to load up the bases with one out. Then Matt Kemp was called upon for pinch-hitting duties. At this moment, I’m going to give you a flashback to Ivan’s post from yesterday.

26 percent of the time that Kemp could have grounded into a double play, he did. For comparison, the league average rate is 11 percent.

Matt Kemp hit the first pitch he saw right back to the pitcher for a 1-2-3 game-ending double play, and the Braves have now lost five-straight games. We’ll see you tomorrow at 7:10 ET for Game 161!